Administration Drops Plan To Merge Justice Agencies

By STEPHEN LABATON,

Published: October 22, 1993

WASHINGTON, Oct. 21—
The Clinton Administration reversed itself today and dropped its proposal to try to save money by merging the Drug Enforcement Administration into the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

The decision was a significant setback for Vice President Al Gore's plan to trim the Federal bureaucracy. Plans to merge the two agencies have circulated in Washington for years. But they were taken seriously this time because Mr. Gore had made the consolidation a cornerstone of the efficiency program he announced two months ago.

In the beginning, the plan appeared to have the endorsement of Attorney General Janet Reno. Supporters of the consolidation, including senior officials at the F.B.I. in search of new assignments in the post-cold war era, had contended that a merger would end costly duplication, and resolve perpetual and expensive turf battles.

But in recent weeks Ms. Reno has backed away from Mr. Gore's proposal. She said at her weekly news briefing today that several prominent lawmakers and officials at the drug agency had persuaded her to drop the merger because it might not actually save money and could wind up curtailing the effectiveness of efforts to control illegal drugs. Rivals Won't Mix Well

The critics also predicted considerable difficulty in trying to meld two rival agencies with vastly different cultures. F.B.I. agents view the less formal drug agents as cowboys. The drug agents see the F.B.I. as a cadre of starched suits.

Ms. Reno said she told Mr. Gore of her decision about the two agencies on Wednesday evening. "He said that sounded good," Ms. Reno said. Mr. Gore's office issued a statement supporting the decision.

Ms. Reno had been hinting for weeks that she was growing disenchanted with the proposal and all but announced her decision in a speech on Tuesday night. She explained that the plan had been dropped in favor of a far more modest effort to coordinate the activities of the agencies, which are both units of the Justice Department.

The F.B.I. has about 10,500 agents and a budget this year of about $2 billion, about three times larger than the D.E.A., which has 3,500 agents and a budget of $718 million. Since the end of the cold war, the bureau has put a higher priority on violent crimes and drugs, in part to reassign agents who had been working on spy cases.

Administration officials said the decision to drop the merger plan substantially reduced the likelihood of the other merger proposed by Vice President Gore, that of the F.B.I. and the Treasury Department's Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. An Agency in Trouble

The prospects of an independent firearms agency have looked dim since a Treasury report last month found that firearms officials tried to cover up how they botched the bloody raid on the Branch Davidian cult near Waco, Tex., in February.

Treasury Secretary Lloyd Bentsen said three weeks ago that he would support shifting the firearms agency to the Justice Department, but only after the D.E.A. merger was completed. In an effort to lift the sagging morale at the battered firearms agency, Administration officials said today that a merger was now much less likely.

"This now leaves the matter open," said John W. Magaw, the acting director of the firearms agency, in an interview today. "It's true we have to share more information and we have to share each other's toys. But consolidation is not the way to do it. Coordination is."

Ms. Reno said today that instead of the merger between the drug agency and the F.B.I., the Administration had decided to create a new high-level position that would sort out turf battles and other problems involving overlapping jurisdictions among the four agencies in her department: the F.B.I., the D.E.A., the Marshals and the Border Patrol. She said the new post would be held by Louis J. Freeh, who would also remain as director of the F.B.I. Face-Saving Gesture

Law-enforcement and Justice officials said the proposed appointment was a way for Ms. Reno to let the Vice President save face.

The new plan will not change the lines of authority within the Justice Department. She said that it would not save money in the near term and that Mr. Freeh would likely get a very small staff for the new assignment. The new proposal is also almost identical to a 1982 plan adopted by the Reagan Administration.